Agenda item

4.05pm

Catherine Mountford, Director of Governance at Buckinghamshire, Oxfordshire and Berkshire West ICB, and Amanda Lyons, Interim Director of Strategy and Partnerships, will introduce a presentation on forthcoming development of the ICB. The Committee is asked to note the presentation and agree any actions it wishes to take in response.

The Committee received an update on

·       the Integrated Care System development following 2022 Health & Care Act receiving Royal Assent in April

·       the System delivery plan

·       the Preparatory phase – pre-establishment for Integrated Care Partnership strategy development

From the ICB, Catherine Mountford, Director of Governance, and Amanda Lyons, Interim Director of Strategy and Partnerships, highlighted points in the presentation.  Slide 5 described the elements created by the Act.  Most of the focus so far had been on establishing the ICB to replace the Clinical Commissioning Groups.  Work was now extending more to the broader Integrated Care System and discussions had taken place on forming the ICP and Place Based Partnerships.

The following points were made in response to questions:

·       Collaboration was being encouraged where appropriate.  There will be a joint strategy with agreed outcomes but then discussions as to how best to deliver.  There may be different needs or priorities in different areas.

·       Eliminating health inequalities will be a major focus.  They will work with Directors of Public Health and Patient Care Networks to identify needs and discuss how to focus resources where most needed.

·       Oxfordshire had already done work on researching the most deprived areas.  It was also known that certain people had worse health outcomes, for example, those with learning disabilities, and particular efforts would be made to engage with those groups including through the voluntary and community sector.

·       The starting point for this year was that each provider had the same funding as last year.  Guidance will be received by the end of the calendar year when the strategy will also be in place.  The funding allocations for 2023/24 will then be decided in detail as well as more generally for a five year period.

·       Specialist services will remain the responsibility of the NHS nationally but some may be delegated to ICSs from 1 April 2023.  However, the South East Region had decided, give the complexity of these commissioning arrangements, that none will be delegated before 1 April 2024 – apart from possibly some pilots.

·       Workforce issues were being examined across the system including health and social care partners as well as the voluntary and community sector.

·       A document on the establishment of the Place Based Partnership was in development and could be shared at the Committee’s meeting in September.

·       It was agreed that the term ‘hard to reach’ communities should be avoided but there was a need to find more effective ways of engaging with certain communities – whether geographic or service-related – and there was a lot to be learned from local authorities who have experience at this.

·       The ICB was already looking at principles for prioritisation of resources.  It was agreed that there was a need to improve engagement and transparency on these decisions.

·       Local authorities and Directors of Public Health were fully involved in the discussions on the strategy representing the views from Place.

·       It was proposed that the Place Based Partnerships will initially be committees of the ICB to allow for delegation to them while NHS guidance was awaited.

Action: Amanda Lyons to provide further information on MSK services.